Zealous Representation

For Five Decades

Attorney Profiles

Joel Cline Harbinson was born February 18, 1954 in Hickory, NC. He is the son of the late Rev. Cline W. Harbinson (1912-1987) and Madeline Campbell Harbinson (1916-2005) and and is the father of two sons, Justin, born July 28, 1985, and Jarrett, born April 11, 1987. Joel is married to Connie Barrett Harbinson and is the step-father of Alexandria Brinkley Corbett. Connie is a 2007 graduate of Catawba Valley Community College with High Honors, a 2008 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Dental Hygiene with Distinction, and a 2012 graduate of A.T. Still University with a Master's in Public Health. She is a Registered Dental Hygienist. Justin is a 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in English with Highest Honors in Creative Writing and a 2010 graduate of the University of San Francisco with a Master's in Fine Arts in Creative Writing. He is an instructor at Catawba Valley Community College in the English Department in the area of writing. Jarrett received a certificate from Alexander Central High School in 2009 having been educated from the TEACCH model for autistic students. Alexandria is a 2009 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Psychology and is a real estate broker at Keller Williams Realty, Inc. She is married to Bryan Corbett, a partner in the law firm, and they are the proud parents of a son, Hudson Alexander Corbett.

After graduating from Alexander Central High School in 1972, Harbinson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Broyhill Industries Scholar. Joel graduated from UNC in 1977 with an A.B. degree and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law in 1979 with a J.D. degree. He has been self-employed since 1979 in a general civil and criminal trial practice in his hometown of Taylorsville. In addition, Joel is a certified mediator in Superior Court cases, receiving initial accreditation from the N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission in 1998.

Joel is the former President of the 22nd Judicial District Bar Association (1987-1988, 1999-2000), and is a member of the N.C. Bar Association, the N.C. Advocates for Justice, and the Phi Delta Phi international legal fraternity. He has consistently received an "AV Preeminent" rating from Martindale-Hubbell, giving him the highest possible ranking by his fellow attorneys and judges in both competence and ethics. He is also listed in the Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers.

Mr. Harbinson concentrates his practice in the areas of Criminal Law and Traffic Offenses, Family Law, Personal Injury and Wrongful Death, and Medical Malpractice.

A devoted alumnus of UNC and a sports enthusiast, Joel is a current member of the UNC Educational Foundation, Inc. (a Big Ram since 1989), the UNC School of Law Alumni Association, and a Life Member of the UNC General Alumni Association. He is a past member of the Morehead Scholarship Selection Committee (1979-2002) and served as county chairman. A 1972 graduate of Alexander Central High School, Joel was a member of the school's first football team in 1970, which also won the Northwestern 3A Conference championship by defeating Marion 9-6 with a field goal by Harbinson late in the game. In addition to being a placekicker, Joel was a running back who rushed for over 1,000 yards and scored over 100 points his senior season, leading the Northwestern 3A Conference in scoring. On October 4, 1971, he scored the first touchdown in the inaugural game played in Cougar Stadium. As a senior, Harbinson was named All-Conference in both football as a running back and baseball as a shortstop. Forty years later in 2011, he helped lead the successful effort to re-name the facility "Glenn G. Wilson Field at Cougar Stadium" in honor of his high school football coach. In the last year of Taylorsville High School in 1970, Joel was an All-Conference shortstop on the school's Northwestern 3A Conference championship baseball team. Later, he won the first county tennis tournament in both men's singles and doubles. In 1985, Joel was selected by the Alexander County Recreation Department as one of several "Living Legends" in the history of Alexander County Sports.

On the local level, Harbinson has served as both a Deacon and an Elder in the Taylorsville Presbyterian Church. He is a co-founder and board member of the Bob Gryder Scholarship Foundation, Inc., which was incorporated in 1974 and was the first, of now many, local providers of annual scholarships to graduates of Alexander Central High School. He also helped lead the effort to name the baseball field at ACHS "Bob Gryder Stadium" after his high school and college classmate who died tragically after their first year together at UNC.

Since Joel's younger son, Jarrett, is autistic, Joel has been active in many organizations promoting mental health in particular and health care in general. He has served on the Board of Directors of the N.C. Autism Society (1992-1996) and was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to serve on the Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities (1997-1999). Joel is the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Alexander Community Hospital (1993-1997).

Active in politics, Harbinson is the former Alexander County Attorney (1982-1986, 1992-1994), Taylorsville Town Attorney (1987-1989) and Alexander County School Board Attorney (1981-1998, 2013-present). Also, Joel is a former member of the Alexander County Board of Elections (1992), the former Chairman of the Alexander County Democratic Party (2003), and a former member of the N.C. Democratic Party State Executive Committee (2002-2003).

On November 3, 1998, Joel was elected to the office of Board of County Commissioners of Alexander County (the first attorney ever to be elected county commissioner in the history of the county) where he served as Chairman (1998-1999), (2001-2002), and Vice-Chairman (2000-2001). In his first term as a commissioner, Joel served on the Executive Board of the Western Piedmont Council of Governments. Although he was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in November, 2002, Joel was elected by the Alexander County Board of Commissioners on June 16, 2003 to serve the unexpired term of David Odom and served until the fall of 2004.

During his term as a county commissioner from 1998 to 2002, Harbinson and his fellow commissioners were instrumental in bringing about the following progress in Alexander County:

Converted the junior high schools to middle schools and moved the 9th grade to ACHS with the first major renovation to the high school in 30 years ($8.8 million);

Built a new Ellendale Elementary School ($6.4 million);

Built a total of 32 new classrooms at West Middle (11), East Middle (11), Sugar Loaf (6), and Stony Point (4) at a cost of $3.95 million;

Established the first permanent community college in the county with the construction of Catawba Valley Community College - Alexander Center ($1.65 million);

Worked with the State to build the Alexander Correctional Institution which is the largest State - funded construction project, outside of road construction, in the history of western North Carolina ($80 million in State funds, $1 million in local funds);

Worked with the State to build a new juvenile detention center using only State funds ($2.8 million);

Built Dusty Ridge Park in the Wittenburg community which is the first multi-purpose county recreational facility in southern Alexander County;

Obtained over $2 million in state and federal grants to run waterlines in the Little River, Three Forks, Rink Dam Road, Millersville, and Liledoun areas;

Instituted county-wide zoning for the first time in the history of the county to protect residential areas and promote commercial development;

Increased local teacher supplements from 1% to 6%;

Increased local funding for education over 40% (more than 10% per year);

Built a new animal shelter at the National Guard Armory;

Worked with Charter Communications to create the Local Government Channel so that commission meetings could be broadcast;

Re-structured the Solid Waste enterprise fund such that citizens could dispose of trash free of charge if they re-cycled;

Brokered an arrangement in which the bankrupt Alexander Community Hospital re-opened as Frye Regional Medical Center - Alexander Campus

During each year in office, Alexander County was recognized by the conservative John Locke Foundation as having the lowest local tax burden on its citizens of all 100 North Carolina counties.

In 2007, Joel created and drafted a bill, which later became law under the sponsorship of Rep. Ray Warren, which split the 22nd Judicial District establishing a new District 22A (made up of Alexander and Iredell counties) and a new District 22B (made up of Davie and Davidson counties) which improved the efficiency of the local judicial system and guaranteed Alexander County two (2) permanent District Court judge positions.

During his career, Harbinson has tried many bench trials in District Court and jury trials in Superior Court in both civil and criminal cases. More recently, from January 2015 to February 2016, Harbinson had three separate jury trials of approximately two weeks' duration with each alleging sexual abuse. All three cases involved male Hispanics he was appointed to represent with the victim in each case being a close, family member who testified of the alleged abuse at trial. Two trials ended in acquittals and one in a hung jury 10-2 in favor of acquittal. Over his career, Harbinson has successfully handled at least a dozen jury trials representing indigent defendants of color charged with sexual offenses, none of which ended in convictions. Consequently, the North Carolina Advocates for Justice asked him to chair a seminar on October 27, 2017 at their headquarters in Raleigh entitled "Becoming Atticus Finch -- Representing the Wrongfully Accused in Sexual Assault Cases."

In 2017, Harbinson helped form The Client Targeting Agency (www.clienttargeting.com) which assists law firms in marketing their legal services by using IP targeting strategies.

Joel now spends most of his time, outside of work, caring for his autistic son, Jarrett. His other activities include attending UNC-Chapel Hill sporting events and quarterly meetings of the Hickory Cigar Club.